VR-Zone was one of the media to get an exclusive preview of the new Lenovo IdeaPad U400 notebook PC in Singapore. Although it is not the U300 UltraBook, the U400 is designed as an affordable laptop with style and good functionality. Details inside.

The 14-inch Lenovo IdeaPad U400 looks extremely stylish with round edges and from its exterior design, it is inevitable to draw comparisons with the renowned Apple MacBook Pro. According to the company, the U400 we see here is a prototype unit. Its chassis is made of aluminium which makes it fairly durable and comes in graphite grey at this press time. The laptop has spacious palm rest, a huge multi-touch touchpad with left/right clickable buttons and uses a chiclet-styled keyboard for comfortable typing.

On the right, we find the system recovery button, air vent, LAN and USB3.0 port, while on the left holds the headphone jack, two USB 2.0, HDMI out connectors and a slot-in DVD drive.

The power button is on the top left corner of the keyboard, and we did not find any notification LEDs as the body is one piece aluminium. Needless to say, it is impossible to replace the battery or even upgrade the memory modules without having to void the unit's warranty. Looking at the dxdiag.exe information, the U400 is equipped with 2.2GHz Intel Core i3-2330M, 2GB DDR3 memory and ATI Radeon graphics.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U400 is currently available as an exclusive bundle with StarHub MaxInfinity Ultimate 100Mbps fibre home broadband plan (S$99.30 per month). The U400 offered with StarHub is valued at S$1,899 and comes with 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-2620M, 4GB DDR3 memory, 500GB hard disk, ATI Radeon HD 6470M graphics (1GB VRAM), DVD SuperMulti drive and preinstalled with Windows 7 Home Premium. According to Lenovo, the IdeaPad 400 would be retailing soon at their authorized resellers and retail stores with similar hardware specifications and price point.